A Day of Wonders

won-der n. 1. rapt attention or astonishment at something awesomely mysterious or new to one's experience 2. a feeling of doubt or uncertainty
won-der v. 1. to be in a state of wonder: MARVEL 2. to feel curiosity or doubt

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

I just listed this pillow in my Etsy shop, right in time for Thanksgiving! It would be a great hostess gift for Thanksgiving as well as a wonderful keepsake for you to pull out each November, reminding you to count your blessings. CLICK HERE to purchase!!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Hello, everyone! Just wanted to let you know that I've launched a new
blog just for doll lovers. If you loved dolls as a child, love dolls
as an adult, collect dolls and/or create things for dolls, this blog is
right up your alley. I'll feature interviews with doll lovers young and
old. YOU could be featured on the blog!! If you have a great
childhood memory about dolls, let me know. I'd love to have you
participate. The more the merrier. The new blog is called "Never Too
Old For Dolls" and can be found HERE. Go check it out!!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Hi! Is anybody still out there? Just checking in. I apologize for being absent for so long. Lots of changes have been in the works for me and my family. In May, I finished my final year of teaching at the Montessori school where I was both head teacher and director. I am finally pursuing a long-held dream of mine to be a homeschool mama to my two sons. I am super-excited about this new adventure. To bring in a bit of extra income this fall, I will be teaching private piano lessons and offering Kindermusik classes from my home studio. I've been busy designing and creating two new blogs to document all these goings-on. You can read about my new studio by visiting Walnut Hill Studio. And.....you can read all about my homeschooling adventures by visiting Walnut Hill Homeschool. With so much new happening, it made sense to me to document everything at a new place in cyberspace. So.......I'm not sure how much I'll be posting over here. I may still pop in to tell you about various non-homeschool-related events and activities. Maybe I'll save this space for a place to share my cooking and crafting, since I still hope to do lots of that. By the way, I've recently discovered Pinterest. Oh, my word! Pure awesomeness. I think this link will take you to my Pinterest page where you can see all the stunning visual inspiration I've found online.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Yep, I really do have four chickens in my bathroom again. I decided to get some new baby chicks this year so we could double our "flock" and have more eggs. We have four full-grown hens and today the boys and I went to our local Bomgaar's and bought four more "girls". By this fall, we should be in the organic, farm-fresh egg business. My sons are old enough now to be more involved in caring for the chickens and gathering the eggs. They can profit from their efforts by selling the eggs to friends and family. It is so fun to raise chickens from chick-hood. They are so cute. I sat in the bathroom and watched them for a long time tonight. At this age, they fall asleep very easily. When they sleep they completely sack out and almost look dead. Sometimes they will be standing up and their eyes will drift closed, then their head droops down, finally their legs collapse and they are sound asleep. I watched one tonight who was getting drowsy right by the water bottle. Her head would start falling until her beak dipped into the water. Then she would startle awake, raise her head to swallow, then quickly fall right back to sleep. It was so cute. For you poultry-minded folks, we got two Ameraucanas (they will lay bluish eggs, which should be fun), one White Rock and one White Leghorn. The Ameraucanas are the darker ones, and the White Rock and White Leghorn are the yellow ones. The White Rock will lay brown eggs, and the white leghorn white eggs. They should be laying by September. PS: For those of you who are wondering, the chicks in the bathroom are in a Rubbermaid tub with a vented lid. They are not in my bathtub!! PPS: I apologize (to myself as much as to anyone who reads this blog) for not posting more often. Hopefully that will change after the school year ends. PPPS: Some exciting news which I have not yet shared online.............this fall I am finally going to be...........a homeschool mama!! Yay!! I am very excited. I've wanted to do this for 10 years (I've been a mom for about 10 years) and am finally taking the plunge! I will document this journey on a new blog which I will start posting on sometime near the end of May.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

My children do not have the latest in popular entertainment and video devices. While we don't live under a rock and my boys do watch TV, we have not yet jumped on the bandwagon of digital gadgetry in our household. Yes, my laptop is my BFF. However, I am not on Facebook or Twitter. I don't know how to text (I know that is VERY lame...........I just haven't needed to learn yet), and my phone is a Motorola Tracfone which I buy minutes for when my minutes run out. It doesn't even have one of those cool little keyboards that slides out. Usually I just use it to call DH with an item to add to the grocery list. (Yes, he does our grocery shopping. I am very blessed.) And believe me...........if someone walked up to me today and offered me one of those really cool phones that does everything, I would not hesitate to accept.

So..........before I go any further, please know that in no way do I judge others for their relationships to digital devices. Nor I am opposed to or "against" the use of said devices. To be honest, we just haven't purchased some of these gadgets because as of yet no one in our family has felt a pressing need to have them. It doesn't make sense to us to buy something for our children that they are not asking for. That would be like introducing an ice cream sundae to a child who consistently and contentedly eats a variety of healthy foods. If they're happy eating healthy, why mess with it, right? Likewise, if my children are happy and occupied with books and toys that don't beep or light up, why mess with it?

Recently, however, my youngest son (he's 5 1/2) has been telling me he REALLY wants a Nintendo DS. I have explained to him that these cost a lot of money and that he will have to really save his money (which he earns by keeping his room clean) if he wants to buy one. The chances of him saving up enough to buy one are slim to none; money kind of burns a hole in his pocket and is usually used to buy more LEGO sets. And I love it when he buys LEGO sets because they are hands-on, open-ended, constructive and will get lots of play time in our household.

Today, however, something occurred that pretty much convinced me that none of MY hard-earned cash is going to buy him a DS anytime soon. There's a bit of a backstory here. Today (Tuesday) was a no-school day for me and my sons. We also had the day off on Monday for President's Day. On Monday I took the boys to a local museum where they were having President's Day activities for families. I also bought the boys lunch at the museum. My youngest son had an orange cream soda to drink. It came in a glass bottle. He didn't drink it all, but when I asked the restaurant employee if they recycled the glass bottles, she said no. I am a pretty dedicated recycler, so I took the bottles into the restroom, dumped the remaining soda out, rinsed the bottles and hauled them around in my huge purse the rest of the afternoon. My youngest son was very excited that we were saving his bottle. He said he was going to make something with it when we got home.

Fast forward to this morning. I decided to clean out the junk drawer in our kitchen. While doing this project, I had the contents of the drawer spread out on our table. My youngest son spotted a round metal lid that was missing its handle. He asked if he could have it. Knowing there was a good chance I had no use for the lid, I agreed. A little while later I was sweeping the floor. My broom dislodged a circular piece of heavy wire from beneath our couch. My youngest son spotted it in the pile of pet hair and dirt just before I swept it into a dustpan. He asked if he could have it. I agreed, but cautioned him to be careful with it.

Later in the morning I rounded up the boys to go to work with me. They often accompany me when I have to get things ready in my preschool classroom. As we headed out the door I noticed that my youngest son was planning to bring the empty glass soda bottle, the metal lid and the ring of wire along. Not wanting to deal with that, I urged him to leave them behind. He persisted, telling me he was going to make something with them. I gave in. We went to my school. While I busied myself with the tasks I needed to accomplish, my youngest son played with the bottle, lid and wire. He showed me all the different things he could do with them. At one point, he used them as a catapult to roll a globe from my classroom across the floor. Another time he showed me how the curved wire could be used like a hook to pick up the lid.

Much later in the afternoon, the boys and I had to stop at my parents' house to pick something up. Again, my youngest son insisted on bringing his bottle, lid and wire with him. My mom greeted us at the door and remarked about the strange assortment of items my little guy was carrying. I told her that he had occupied himself with these three items for much of the day. The boys played at my parents house for about an hour while I went back to work. Although he played with other things, I know my son continued to enjoy his trio of "junky" treasures at their house as well.

At one point today he told me he wants to collect lots of bottles so he can make lots of things with them. It reminded me of his Valentine's party at school last week. I had brought juice boxes for the children. Instead of throwing his juice box away when he was finished, my son asked to bring it home. He wanted to make a boat out of it.

So........now you know why he isn't getting a Nintendo DS anytime soon. Who needs a fancy video game when you can be happily entertained for hours with a bottle, a discarded lid, and a piece of wire? Why mess with a good thing?

Saturday, February 12, 2011

The random number was #34, posted by LT: "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!! I struggle with both spiritual and physical fitness. I could definitely benefit from a book like this, plus...Candace Cameron Bure is one of my role models."

Congratulations, LT! Please email me at directress@live.com with your snail mail address and I'll pop it in the mail to you.

Thanks to everyone for playing! Best of luck to you on your fitness goals. I am plugging away with my exercise and better eating goals. I used to drink 3 diet sodas every day. Now I am only having a few each week and I'm gradually learning to drink lots more water. I have found that I much prefer cold water to water right from the tap, so I've started keeping a large glass in the frig at all times so I can grab it and drink. I'm also keeping a water bottle in the frig at my work so I drink more water throughout the day. In addition, I'm doing a treadmill workout (using this beginner's running program) about 3 times per week and I'm doing exercise DVDs on the other days, about 3 times per week as well. I have found that exercise DVDs are a great and inexpensive way to fit fitness into a busy schedule since you don't have to go anywhere or be anywhere at a specific time. If you haven't already done so, head over to Collage Video. This website features only fitness videos. You can preview every single one of their DVDs right on the website because each title has a short video clip. You can also read the reviews written by other women who have tried the videos. In addition, you can usually find videos here for much less than anywhere else and the selection can't be beat! I recently ordered 4 new DVDs to put into my weekly rotation. Yesterday I did Skinny Sculpt with Ellen Barrett. I totally loved this workout and still feel a little sore today! The great thing about this DVD is that it is not a strenuous high-impact aerobic workout, yet you still really feel toned and strengthened at the end. I highly recommend it and it has great reviews over at Collage.